An example of conventional article transport facilities is described in JP Publication of Application No. 2007-246231 (Patent Document 1). In the article transport facility of Patent Document 1, a section through which an article transport device moves includes a transporting movement section and an out-of-the way movement section. When transporting an article with the article transport device, the article transport device moves in the transporting movement section whereas, when moving the article transport device out of the transporting movement section, for example, to perform a maintenance work on an article transport device, the article transport device is caused to move from the transporting movement section to an out-of-the-way stop position in the out-of-the-way movement section.
When performing a maintenance work on an upper part of the article transport device which has been moved to the out-of-the-way movement section, a worker would place a stepladder near the article transport device, and get onto the stepladder to perform the maintenance work on the article transport device. Thus, when performing a maintenance work, it is necessary to move the stepladder to near the article transport device; thus, it has been burdensome to move the stepladder when performing a maintenance work. In addition, as the height of the article transport device increases, it is necessary to use a larger-sized stepladder; and, a larger-sized stepladder requires a larger setting surface, which may lead to a problem that the stepladder cannot be appropriately placed.
Thus, it is conceivable to make it unnecessary to move and place a stepladder when performing a maintenance work on an upper part of an article transport device, by installing a work platform located to one lateral side of the article transport device which has been moved to the out-of-the-way movement section. However, when it is impossible to secure a large space that is located to one lateral side of the article transport device which has been moved to the out-of-the-way movement section because there is only a limited floor space that can be used to install the article transport facility, or because there are other structures in the surrounding area of the article transport facility, it is difficult to install a large work platform there.